Salem-News.com Politics articles

Graft, Corruption and Cheap Politics in America are Winning the War for the Taliban

The old Taliban is gone. This is a reality we haven't even considered. The realities of power in Afghanistan have shifted, changed permanently. They can go back but only so far back.

(CINCINNATI, Ohio) - Even if analysts existed who understood Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the other countries of this region, their history, their people and why war and threat of war is a way of life, even if America's "decision makers" knew how ill conceived our policies are, how self defeating and how hopeless, we would make the same mistakes.

We have willed ourselves this fate.

Chinese Activist`s Family Gets US Asylum

It is reported that Guo has been constantly abused while serving his current sentence.

(HONK KONG RFA) - The wife and two children of a jailed Chinese rights lawyer have been granted political asylum in the United States, Radio Free Asia reports.

Zhang Qing, the wife of jailed Chinese rights lawyer Guo Feixiong, and their two children were notified of their status on Nov. 19, she told RFA's Mandarin service in her first interview since arriving in the United States in early April.

VA and Army Medical Care: More Dangerous than IED`s
It`s Also More Futile

Because medical cannabis is legal in Oregon I ended up with about one thousand PTSD Vets from all recent wars as legal MMJ users.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Along with other writers here, I have repeatedly posted articles of the same tone and I have received dozens of emails agreeing with me or commenting further in the same vein.

I have had very few comments from Vets stating that they had received good or even adequate care.

Benny & Sid presents Chapter 9 of the Serialized Graphic Novel The Truant Officer

All it would take is to find your way to the wrong part of town, meet the wrong person, yield to the wrong temptation and all the Sunday church-going of a hundred years won't do you a bit of good.

(Your City, USA) - You may be a Pastor and wield the Bible to turn aside Satan when he shows his pointed little head and pitch fork.

But none of it means anything until real temptation comes your way. You're out of town. No one knows you from Adam. All it would take is to find your way to the wrong part of town, meet the wrong person, yield to the wrong temptation and all the sunday church-going of a hundred years won't do you a bit of good.

Wyden, Merkley Announce Millions in Military Construction Projects, VA Health Care

Veterans Affairs Funding to be for Two-Year Cycle for First Time.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) announced millions in funding for Oregon as part of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations bill passed by the Senate.

The bill also marks the first time that the veterans health care funding will be budgeted for a two-year period supplanting the yearly budgeting process.

Army Psychiatrists: PTSD & Major Hasan - Retread

It's not a personality disorder.

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - The Fort Hood Massacre leaves many questions in my mind. I can look at this and think about it from several viewpoints. I did have a year of psychology in college and a course of psychiatry in medical school. By any standard that is not enough.

I did have advanced psychology courses in the Infantry as a Private Combat Infantryman. I was convinced that most of my sergeants, junior officers and even farther up the brass chain were off kilter.

Senators Press Holder to Declassify Key Facts about Patriot Act

“Most members of Congress – and nearly all of the American public -- lack important information about the issue”.

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - In anticipation of the upcoming Senate debate over Patriot Act reauthorization, U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to declassify key information pertaining to the law’s “business records” provision (Section 215). Today’s letter follows a classified letter that the senators sent Holder in June 2009.

“We appreciate that the Department of Justice has taken action on several of the issues we raised,” wrote the senators. “However, the Department has yet to act on – or respond to – the issue we raised in the first two paragraphs of our letter.”

The Dog House Helps Vets With PTSD

Blackdog Foundation is a self funded veteran outreach that deals with the most unpleasant aspects of PTSD such as domestic/community violence intervention and mediation.

(OLYMPIA, Wash. ) - I started using the 38ft LCPL (WWII landing craft) my wife bought me to get Blackdog Foundation (Blackdog is a 501c3 set up to help veterans) out of her spare bedroom I was using as an office.

From the first time we used it, it blew me away how much peace using the boat brought those I was working with on PTSD issues.

North Korea`s Underground Bunkers

Hundreds of bunkers are decoys, a defector says, while hundreds more contain material for a possible invasion.

(SEOUL RFA) - North Korea built hundreds of bunkers at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating it from South Korea even as the previous Seoul government pursued its policy of opening to the North, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.

A well-informed North Korean defector said in an interview that Pyongyang had built at least 800 bunkers, including an unknown number of decoys, to prepare for a possible invasion of South Korea while South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun was in office.

Downside of Alexander/Webb Nuclear Bailout Plan

Market Refusal to Finance New Reactors Reflects Unacceptable Financial Risks That Should Not be Ignored by Lawmakers; Taxpayers and Ratepayers Beware: Loan Guarantees and Other Subsidies Will Not Turn ‘Uneconomic’ Reactors Into Sound Investments.

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - If Congress and the states do not follow the lead of Wall Street in declining to underwrite financially “risky and uneconomic” new nuclear reactors, the resulting taxpayer-backed loan guarantees and other subsidies could pave the way for the same kind of industry-wide meltdown that happened in the 1970s and 1980s.

That is according to a major new study by Dr. Mark Cooper, a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School.